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To: chris431 who wrote (4228)	5/15/1999 1:09:00 AM
From: bob	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18366

Portable MP3-Player makes memory cards for digital cameras unusable 1999-04-20 Several digitalkamera.de visitors reported to us about problems they have encountered using their SmartMedia cards in both their digital cameras and in Rio MP3-Players from the company Diamond Multimedia. We got to the bottom of it. Diamond Rio PMP300 is a portable digital music player for music data which corresponds to MP3 (MPEG 1, Layer 3). Rio, complete with headphones, replaces conventional cassette players and CD players with the unbeatable advantage of having no moving parts. This not only means that the device is very small and light (70 g), but it is not highly affected by jolts or vibrations. Therefore it is a suitable device to use while jogging. The Rio PMP300 has a built-in 32 MBytes Flash-Memory, which with its high compression of MP3 format, is able to store up to about 60 minutes of music. If that is not sufficient for the users, they can resort to SmartMedia cards, which Rio has a slot for. However, those people who want to use their SmartMedia cards alternately in their digital cameras and in their Rios are in for an unpleasant surprise: memory cards that have been used at least once in a Rio are rejected by the digital camera as being defective. Re-formatting is not possible, not even in an external card reading device, PC-card adapter or floppy adapter. All these devices indicate " Card Error". On the other hand, use in the Rio MP3-Player is still possible. This behaviour was confirmed by users, and references to this problem can also be found in the World Wide Web, for example in SSFDC-Forum ("SSFDC" is the earlier term for SmartMedia) and in the Frequently Asked Questions on the German website of Diamond Multimedia. The cause of this problem is Rio's own format that Diamond uses because of copyright reasons. This prevents music data from being played back from the memory card to a PC, so that songs can not be duplicated illegally. The fact that the SmartMedia cards can be manipulated in this way, and that they cannot even be re-formatted, has posed a problem for dealers and manufactures alike. Dealers and manufacturers have no possibility to identify a supposed defective SmartMedia card as a "Rio victim" with out trying it out themselves in a Rio PMP300. If the card works there, it is suspected that the card had been used in a Rio PMP300 before. However, sometimes the customer denies owning such a device or having used the card in one. That is then a precarious situation, since the card is unusable in other devices after this test. One distributor is already including a notice stating that the warrenty excludes complaints after use in a MP3-Player. What really is necessary is a formatting programme that "hard" formats the SmartMedia card no matter what information is already contained on the card -- comparable to the so-called low level formatting of a hard disk. The digital camera manufacturers expect that such a programme be provided by Diamond Multimedia as the manufacturer of Rio. Such a promise was made by a Diamond branch employee at CeBIT in March. The two-week time period given at that time has past, however. We have contacted the German PR manager, who had no knowledge of this promise. He feels it is the digital camera manufacturers' responsibility and not Diamond's. Even when the longed for formatting programme is available, one problem will still not be solved. The manufacturer Olympus stores small additional programmes on its cards that can be used with the Olympus compact cameras (C-420L, C-820L, C-830L, C-840L und C-900 Zoom). Depending on the card, the camera offers support with panorama photography or with combining recorded images with labels, decorative frames or calendar sheets. These special functions are lost as soon as the card is initialised in a Diamond Rio and cannot be retrieved again, even by re-formatting. Of course, we will keep you up-to-date on this subject on digitalkamera.de. Until there is a solution, Rio PMP300 owners should follow this piece of advice: do not use any SmartMedia cards in your MP3-Players, if you want to use the card in another device afterwards. At this time there is no possibility to format the card back to the standard format.

To: chris431 who wrote (4228)	5/15/1999 1:38:00 AM
From: bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18366

Well Chris, here's another side of the same coin. Secure Digital Music Initiative London, May 5, 1999 – At the third plenary meeting of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) in London on May 3-5, attended by more than 90 companies, the music and technology industries achieved consensus on a possible framework for the treatment of music to be played on future computers and consumer electronic devices. The framework deals with both protected and unprotected music in a consumer friendly manner while still creating a mechanism to limit future piracy of copyrighted music on CDs and new formats. Technical experts from the music and technology industries also continued their collaborative efforts toward the development of a specification for portable devices and the definition of functional requirements for the overall SDMI architecture. The working groups established to accomplish these tasks met their objectives, so that the SDMI schedule remains firmly on track. The specification for portable devices is intended to be completed by June 30, 1999, so that portable devices can be manufactured in time for the 1999 holiday season. The long-term SDMI specification is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2000. Leonardo Chiariglione, Executive Director of SDMI, commented that the London sessions produced substantial consensus on the permitted uses of both compressed and uncompressed music. "The dialog among SDMI participants brought about a much higher level of mutual understanding than previously existed about the respective needs of the technology and music industries and their customers. The consensus that is being formed will pave the way for ultimate approval of a portable device specification by the June 30 deadline."

To: chris431 who wrote (4228)	5/15/1999 2:44:00 AM
From: Walter Morton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18366

Have you seen this? "Longer Playback The Audible MobilePlayer holds about 2 hours of spoken audio. The new Audible MobilePlayer-PLUS will store over 7 hours. This is more spoken audio than any other mobile, digital audio device holds. For example, the Diamond Rio only has the capacity for 2 ½ hours of spoken word audio. Smarter Playback The Audible MobilePlayer is smarter than other digital mobile audio devices. For instance, if you stop listening in the middle of a program, the MobilePlayer remembers where you left off and picks up at the same point when you resume listening. Other mobile audio devices go back to the beginning of the program each time the player is restarted. This ability to maintain state and many other navigation functions make the MobilePlayer ideal for controlling your playback experience." And there is more: audible.com Is this a threat to EDIG? I though these were it: ewbridge.com zdnet.com and I thought EDIG had them beat. I've never seen The Audible MobilePlayer. Oh, here's a picture: audible.com